Wanting to go into Teaching - advice please?

[Guest sibon]

Hi all,

 

I am a qualified adult Nurse educated to degree level. I am however wanting to go into teaching primary children. There is a course at Sheffield Hallam which i could take next year however it requires experience of working with children in a classroom setting. Apart from being a mother i have no other experience.

To do this where should i apply? Can i apply directly to schools as a volunteer? Could i take up the role as teaching assistant or do i need a different set of qualifications for that too?

 

Has anybody gone down the route of changing professions?

 

Any adivce welcome really.

 

Thank you x

 

 

Hi Delinquent. If you contact some local schools and tell them your intentions, you might well find one willing to give you a placement. I place people on this basis quite often, but I work in a secondary school. A polite email to some of the headteachers might be a good first step.

 

PGCE is a good route into teaching, but if I were you, I'd also investigate GTP. I believe that it is still possible to get a funded place for Primary teaching. That way, you get paid while you train and, if funded, you become very attractive to schools.

 

You will probably need to be persistent to get a placement, but do persevere.

[Suffragette1]

There were lots of vacancies for teaching a few years back, in fact they were crying out for teachers to get trained up.

 

Not sure if the situation is the same now.

 

The PGCEs are totally oversubscribed (which is why they can command graduates with a 2:1 minimum) and there are also plenty of qualified teachers unable to get posts, especially in the primary sector. Even supply work is drying up it seems as I gather many schools are using the TAs rather than getting supplies in.

[iansheff]

Hallam used to do a one year PGCE for secondary teachers, not sure about primary or if they still do it.